Monday, January 3, 2011

So heavy was the burden of fixtures upon European Champion Clubs' Cup winners Liverpool FC that they could only find one date to contest the 1984 UEFA Super Cup with Juventus – and that was in Turin in January 1985.

A win on penalty kicks following a 1-1 draw against AS Roma had seen Liverpool crowned European champions for the third time in the summer of 1984, while Juventus had taken the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup with a 2-1 victory against FC Porto in Basel. The scorer of what proved to be the winning goal in that game, Zbigniew Boniek, was to be Juventus' hero in the truncated UEFA Super Cup final as well. The Polish international opened the scoring in Turin after 39 minutes and beat Bruce Grobelaar in the Liverpool goal for a second time after 79 minutes.Without a customary second leg to defend their lead, that victory gave Juventus the UEFA Super Cup.

It was to be the last UEFA Super Cup match for two years. Juventus and Liverpool met again in the European Champions Clubs' Cup final on 29 May 1985, but the match at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels was rendered insignificant after crowd violence led to the deaths of 39 supporters. The game was played, with Michel Platini's goal giving Juventus victory, but it was to be a hollow success. With hooliganism in England having reached its height, UEFA subsequently banned English clubs from Europe for five seasons – which in turn saw the cancellation of the 1985 UEFA Super Cup final. Liverpool's local rivals Everton FC would have played Juventus in that game, having won the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, but the ban meant they never got the chance. The Italian side, meanwhile, were too deep in grief to want such a fixture.